Flexible, anti-skid floor comprising wood and rubber

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a floor comprising square strips of rubber with small wooden squares glued thereto and a slot which is disposed between each piece of wood thereby forming a tile. In this way, said strips are positioned side by side in order to form a floor. The slots between the wooden squares enable the sheet of rubber to bend and adapt to flat or somewhat curved surfaces. In addition, the rubber, which forms the base of the tile comprises anti-skid properties in relation to the floor o sub-floor to which it is applied. Moreover, the slots between the wood on the upper part of the tile provide the tile with anti-skid properties in relation to movement thereon. According to the invention, no additional materials are required to mount the tile. In order to adjust the inventive tile to projections in the sub-floor, wooden squares are remove by cutting the rubber using a sharp knife along the slots between the wood.

BRIEF REVIEW

The invention relates to a floor, with a regular tile shape, which enables to have it mounted on flat o curved sub-floors, not requiring glue or any auxiliary material for assembling purposes.

GENERAL REVIEW OF THE PRESENT TECHNIQUE ON FLOORS.

At present, there are several types of floors, that can be assembled only in flat sub-floors, such as multilaminated in wood and plastic, in various length and shapes, boards, and floating floors, this last one on top of a plastic soft sheet. In any case, additional elements and tools are required, as a complement for binding the floor to the sub-floor. Some floors have dove tails for mounting, which requires close machining tolerances. Besides, it is required a certain skill to have them assembled, because they must be adjusted, nailed, or fastened, and wooden pegs inserted.

The invention solves the whole assembly process, by eliminating all aditional operations, including hand works and materials. The sub-floor can be flat or somewhat curved. It so happen because the tiles of the invention comprise a rubber base plate, to which several wooden squares are glued. The wood squares do not touch each other. The wood block become the walking pass.

AIMS OF THE INVENTION

The aims of the invention, are achieved by gluing on top of a rubber plate the size of a tile, many small square wooden blocks, which are enough apart from each other, to live an space, or slot, between each two wood squares. The slot allows the rubber plate to remain flexible, acting like a hinge.

Because of the anti-skid property of the rubber of the tile, which is laying on top of the sub-floor, the tile is unable to skid.

Because of the slots between square wood blocks, the top of the tile becomes a anti-skid surface to the transit.

No glue is required to assemble the tiles, one next to the other, on the sub-floor.

When it is necessary to adjust to projections coming out from the sub-floor, wood squares can be removed by cutting the rubber with a sharp knife.

SOME EXPLANATION ON DRAWINGS

For a better understanding of the invention, two drawings show how the invention is:

Drawing No 1: Is a perspective view of the tiles, such as they are conforming a floor.

Drawing No 2: Is a top view of one tile of the floor.

In both drawings, same numbers belong to same parts.

The parts are as follows: Part number Part description 1 tyle 2 rubber plate 3 glue 4 wood blocks 5 slots 6 dashed line which indicates a possible slots where to cut the rubber to remove wood blocks.- 

1. The invention is a composite floor made of wood and rubber, in which a solid wood panel is glued to flexible rubber plate. After the glue is set, by using machinery, slots are made in the length and the width of the wooden panel. The depth of the slots goes from the top of the wood panel to its bottom, living an empty space between the several square blocks which become after panel is slotted. The rubber is not slotted, and remains of the same original thickness.
 2. The slots so made as per claim 1, divide the wood plate in several small wooden blocks, firmly glued to the rubber base plate. These wooden blocks can have various shapes: rectangular rhomboidal, square, with curved forms.
 3. The slots so made have a wedged shape. The wider side of the wedge is in the upper side of the slot. The end of the wedge, or apex, is at the glued face of the wood block. The apex of the slot is an arrow like, but has a certain width, which is the same of the visible rubber width. These visible rubber width acts as a hinge because there is an empty space between any two sides of the wooden blocks. If the tile so formed is to be folded to a roll form, it can be done in two opposite sences, that is with the wooden plates looking inside or outside the roll.
 4. The roll so formed as per claim 3, can be unfolded, and used to pave any surface, which could be flat or curved in a convex or concave shape, then continuing on a slopped surface, then on a vertical surface. All these surfaces can be flat, convex or concave. In example, it could be applied over spherical surfaces if the size of the slots are increased, and the size of the wooden blocks decreased, while been machined.
 5. The rubber plate base of the tiles, has by its bottom side, a great amount of very thin and narrow rubber edges protruding from the rubber, against the sub-floor surface. The own weight of the tile plus, the weight of any object lying on the top of the tile, and the proper of the walkers, will compress the edges, and increase the anti-skid property of the floor.
 6. As there is a void in between wooden blocks, due to the machined slots, it forms a split surface, which is highly anti-skid. When used outdoor, the weather conditions, like rain, will not change its property.
 7. The composite wood and rubber floor can be made tile form, or rolls. In any case, it can be removed after mounting, because does not require to be glued to the sub-floor.
 8. If there are protruding elements in the sub-floor where the invention is to be mounted, with a sharp knife, wooden blocks can easily be removed, by cutting the rubber in the chosen slots. Nevertheless, de rubber will not rip afterwards. 